HM's forces at risk from the sausage soldiers

The National Interest, an American foreign policy quarterly (men such as the former secretary of state Henry Kissinger are at the top of it) has been having a look at the EU and the Lisbon Treaty. In particular, the journal has looked at the aspirations or, pretensions of European politicians such as Nicolas Sarkozy to build an EU military force. Here are the findings by a Washington defence specialist on the kind of euro-soldiers on whom British soldiers are expected to depend if Sarko's dream of a pan-European army comes to pass:

"German troops operating in Afghanistan have distinguished themselves by their beer drinking and sausage eating; 40 percent of German soldiers in the country are overweight and 10 percent are obese. America's past representative to NATO, Nicholas Burns, figured that just 3 to 5 percent of European military forces could be deployed overseas, compared to roughly 75 percent of American personnel. Bastian Giegerich of the International Institute for Strategic Studies reports that 'The majority of EU member states appear unable to deploy formations of even battalion size (500-800 troops) on a single mission...'"

"Europeans conduct a lot of peacekeeping missions but have little ability to prosecute a real war. During the war against Serbia analysts figured that the European members of NATO possessed just 10 to 15 percent of America's combat capabilities..."

"That means Europe has had to turn to Russia for logistical support in some peacekeeping operations."

"The European members of NATO consistently failed to fulfil their promises to increase military outlays during the cold war; the likelihood of them doing so today, especially in the midst of economic crisis, is nil."

"None of this means that a more unified Europe wouldn't have some influence internationally. But the continent's role will remain limited so long as it lacks the most basic assets of hard power. There isn't a lot of use having a 'High Representative' for the Union in foreign affairs and security policy if the EU has neither the ability nor the will to employ military force."

"Moscow isn't likely to care much what the Europeans think."

All true. But politicians such as Sarkozy want a 60,000-man Brussels directed expeditionary force anyway. If any British government ever sends out HM's forces to risk their lives alongside such an army of slackers and fatties, it won't be war. It will be murder.